Osaka Aquarium

We visited the Osaka Aquarium last weekend with a few friends and their kids. Denis loved all the animals - the fish, the dolphins, the penguins, the sea lions, the whale sharks... He was a man (a little man!) on a mission that day - running from one window to the next, making his funny fish sounds all the while. 

Here are a few photos. Most are blurry or blue-tinged, and you can rarely see what D is looking at, but you get the idea!

Music Man

I think I've mentioned before how much Denis loves music. Well, his Aunt ReBecca and Uncle Mike sent him a couple of CDs with his name in the songs - songs that they're singing! How cool is that? Here's a clip of D moving and grooving to the tunes. Thanks, R&M!

BorneLund

We visited the infamous BorneLund today with our friends TKR&T. Denis loved it! It's an indoor playground with all sorts of fun things to do - a ball pit, a "construction" site, a play kitchen and more. It was a great way to spend a winter afternoon. I'm sure we'll be going back soon!

New Discoveries

We've been home a week! Feels much longer than that. Denis is making huge progress. He can point to a couple of things in a book (banana, apple) and will go get a few things that you ask him to (his slippers, his shoes). His English vocabulary includes up, down, all done, quack!quack!, and owl. He repeated the words yellow and blue today, but I don't think he knows what they mean yet. He is CRAZY about bath time now. He throws a fit when it's time to get out and he asks me to open the bathroom door all day. I think that's what you call a 180°! He's still eating well - tuna casserole and blueberry yogurt for lunch today and tonight he ate some pieces of pork tenderloin, sweet potatoes, and applesauce. We went to our first play group this morning. D knew how to sit in the circle and listen to the songs, and he did a nice job sharing toys with the other kids. But when it came time to make musical shakers out of popcorn and paper plates, he thought it was snack time and wanted to eat the kernels of popcorn!

Below are a few pictures of Little D discovering all kinds of new things - cars, horses, the telephone, and Play-Doh. Ahh, to be a toddler!

Where is Mr. Schatzky?

One of the Kindergarten classes at school made posters regarding Jon's whereabouts for the last month. Too cute!

Settling In

Here are a few pictures of D's first days in Kobe.  Enjoy! You'll see we finally had a breakthrough with bath time. After a few tears tonight (and screaming bloody murder last night), Denis decided he LOVED the bath and didn't want to get out. Go figure.

Home Sweet Home

We're home! We arrived Thursday afternoon and are trying to get our feet back on the ground. We're all a bit jet-lagged, but hopefully we'll be on Kobe time in a couple more days. Denis is adjusting well. He seems to like his new home (including his very own room!) and he can hardly believe that there are real live "meow-meows" in his house. I must say that both parties - kitties and kiddo - are handling the changes well. They seem to have a healthy curiosity/wariness of each other. But I'm sure there will be battle scars...just not sure who will wear them!

I took Denis up to school at the end of the day on Friday to see his Papa and his huge fan club. Everyone was excited to meet our little Russian, and D handled all the attention quite well. He loved the school and was fascinated by all the kids. He met several new friends and even had his first pizza party with Riley, Tess, and Suzy. He loved playing with all the girls! We had spring-like weather today, so we took advantage of the warm temps by playing in the courtyard, having lunch down at the River Mall, and taking D for his first bike ride.

I'll try to post some more pictures soon. My laptop's experiencing some technical difficulties at the moment (grrrrr!). Stay tuned...

Happy Valentine's Day!

Headed for Home

Word on the street is that Denis's Japanese visa will be ready by 2:30 tomorrow afternoon (his US visa came through at 2:30 on Monday). If this rumor proves to be true, we'll head straight to the airport to catch our 6:30PM flight to Beijing and then continue on to Kobe. Are we really at the end of this 13-month journey?! Here's hoping for a no-more-hoops-to-jump-through kind of day tomorrow!

Below are a few random pictures of Denis. Enjoy!

Here he's sporting his new hat (which he needs to grow into!) and his new backpack.

And here he's trying out the book-as-a-step-stool trick again, only he stepped off at the last minute!

Red Square & the Kremlin

Here are a few shots from our outing to Red Sqaure and the Kremlin. I'm afraid the pictures don't do these places justice. Very grandiose and impressive!

Mucking about Moscow

We're back in Moscow. This time with a little one in tow. D's first flight was turbulence free. And I mean that both literally and figuratively. He did very well! He had no idea what was going on, of course, but still...

The morning after we arrived, a doctor who works for the US Embassy came to our hotel (at 6:30AM!) to examine Denis. Just what a toddler wants - to be poked and prodded when he's still half asleep! But the doctor was great. His Russian instantly put D at ease, and we sighed a sigh of relief when he heard his perfect English. He performed a quick exam and was quite pleased with Denis's health. He said he looked as if he was "thriving" and that he was a solid and handsome boy! We've always thought so, too, but it was nice to hear such things from a doctor.

We've applied for Denis's US visa, which should be ready Monday (IF the potential problem of our stateside and overseas addresses turns out not to be a problem at all) and his Japanese visa, which should be ready Wednesday (IF the Japanese Embassy really doesn't celebrate the upcoming Japanese holiday on Feb 11). We'll be flying back to Kobe on Wednesday night IF everything falls into place. Has any part of this adoption process been accomplished without a big "IF" hanging over it? I don't think so! All if's aside, we should be home soon.

Apart from doctor visits, embassy runs, and wondering if we should worry about all these if's, we've just been mucking about Moscow. We took the metro to Gorky Park today. Tons of people were out and about skating and walking around - even in these minus temps. We plan to go to Red Square/St. Basil's and the Kremlin tomorrow. And we're hoping to catch up with some old friends of ours who are now teaching in Moscow.

Here are some random pics of us leaving Kaliningrad and hanging around Moscow.

Gotcha!

It's official! The Schatzky family has grown by one! We received the final court decision today - still YES - as well as the certificate of adoption and a new birth certificate for Denis, both of which need to be translated into English. We also applied for his Russian passport and should be able to pick it up tomorrow or Thursday. Then it's off to Moscow to obtain D's visas for the US and Japan. 

Happy Gotcha Day, Denis! Welcome to your family. (And happy birthday, Granny Margaret!)

Little Problem Solver

It seems we have a little problem solver on our hands. Denis was trying to reach a light switch today that was a tad too high for him. This surprised him since he can juuuust reach all the others in the apartment if he stands on his tippy toes and streeeeetches his arm and pointer finger as far as they'll go. But stretch as he might, he couldn't get this one. Wanting to see what he would do, I just shrugged my shoulders and turned up my palms to show that I hadn't a clue as to how we were going to solve this problem. (Secretly, I was thrilled that there was at least one light he couldn't turn on and one less that I'd have to turn off.) Well, guess what the little fart did after I shrugged my helpless shoulders? He went and got a big book, set it down underneath the light switch, stood on it, and reached up. With an impish little grin in my direction he cliiiiiicked on the light. Was he ever pleased with himself!

I do have to give him credit for figuring this out. But, I have to wonder... should a 21-month old toddler be such a slick problem solver? And what are these skills going to look like in a 16-year old teenager?

Snowbound Blue Snowsuit

It was finally cold enough for Denis to don his snowbound blue snowsuit. If only there had been snow today! Oh well... At least he looked the part. Except for the missing snow boots, that is.

We had another good day today. A few challenges, lots of rewards, and the beginnings of a new routine - our very own routine - are starting to take shape. I'm guessing that we'll have this routine down just in time for our flight to Moscow and our week-long stay in a small hotel room. {Sigh.}